On My Way Home with Lots of "Add On" Thoughts

As we travel home... Bangkok to Tokyo to San Francisco to Boston to Marshfield, I'm full of thoughts of what I've lived over the past 10 days.

I've been so fortunate to travel with such wonderful people on this trip. 24 educators of different ages who teach or administer to different ages and different content areas, all under the great and passionate global leadership of Dr. Mary Ann DeMello. 

I'm proud to be an American, the land of the free and the brave. I loved witnessing Louis, our Thai tour guide who was with us every waking moment of this trip, showing such pride in his country, its people, it's Buddhism, it's landscape, its history, it's food.

A few additional things that I must add before this blog or journal of this 10 day trip is complete.

Tuk Tuks:

An important mode of transportation. These 3 wheeled vehicles are seen everywhere in Bangkok and Chiang Mai. We all were dropped off at the Niht Market in Chiang Mai by bus one evening after a diner out. As we finished at the Market, we all hired a driver and took a TukTuk ride back to the hotel, a few miles away. I shared my TukTuk ride with Mary Ann and Melanie, lots and lots of laughs!

The vendors and their markets:

They are everywhere! So much to buy, such pressure to buy, even from children. The food and handmade crafts are often just beautifully displayed.

The Buddhist Monks:

We saw Monks all over Thailand. About 98% of the Thai people are Buddhist. Every Buddhist man must be a Monk for at least a 3 month period of time by the time they are 20 or so years old. Young boys sometimes have some Monk training between he ages of 9 and 12 or so years old.  It's easy to pick the Monks out of a crowd, as they always wear an orange gown of sorts.

Any day of the week at any time during the day, people can be found meditating/worshipping at the temples. As i blogged a few weeks ago after our Raynham temple trip, Buddhism is a way of life.

I'm so elated that I chose to go on this trip. I dont think I'll forget what I saw and how I felt over the last 10 days. What I've really thought about is "way of life.". Our way of life in America is our way of life. As a country, but even more so as communities and as individuals. The same can be said for Thailand. We need to be at peace with how we live and to keep our minds and eyes open to all ways of life.

Global learning should not be a just a subject in our schools. It shouldn't simply be in a social studies unit or in a geography unit. It should be interwoven into all subjects and not just from a story or textbook. Global learning needs to be experiential, whether by travel or within the walls of a classroom.

The more we can learn about other cultures, languages, landmarks, landforms, people and ways of life, the more we will grow as individuals, and the smaller our world will become.  It is our job as educators to teach with a global perspective. I will.  I'll end with my favorite picture I took on the trip. This little girl showing gratitude for her lunch at school. Fish stew.

 

A High School Visit

On our last full day in Thailand we visited an all girls junior high/high school. There are 2000 students at this school. This visit was obviously very well planned out on the school's part, as it was well organized and executed by the school.  Every person I came upon was very friendly and acted so excited to have us there.

We were met at the school's entrance by several students.  

Interesting that the track is in the front yard of the school!

We see very large pictures of the King of Thailand, King Rama lX,meverywhere we go. Schools, along The highway, gas stations, entrance to new neighborhoods, the airport, and even in the refugee camps.

 

We were immediately escorted to classrooms. I was with several from our group in a seventh grade English class. The students in this class are a part of the " English Program" at the school.  The girls were presenting about something that's very special to them and why, in English.  Their English was excellent.

The teacher reminded me so much of Jack Nicholson!

Every girl wore a uniform and had their hair styled the same way.

The girls in the 7th grade class were wearing their sports uniforms. The typical uniform is a gray skirt, white shirt and a bow tie. Friday is "sports day" for Grade 7.

We were then escorted by some girls to a conference room where two groups of 3 girls each presented their science/math projects to our group. The math project was about bridge construction. It was very high thinking and quite impressive. After they presented, I told them about the Zakim Bridge in Boston and told them they should google it. They politely informed me that they had already researched it!

In the conference room there was a plate for each of us with a bottled water, a coke, a basket of delicious mangosteen fruit and a bowl with little gelatin sweets.  The hospitality was wonderful!

Their next block was the "club block". They chose between reading, fencing, gardening, and many more.

I loved the thrown about backpacks! Just like home!

We had a wonderful time at this school. These girls are very talented and all talked college with us!

JEATH War Museum, Allied War Cemetery and Bridge Over the River Kwai

Do you know about the Death Railway between Thailand and Burma (Myanmar) that was made by POW's in World War ll? Today we visited the JEATH Museum, the Allied War Cemetary , and the Bridge over the River Kwai, which is a part of the Death Railway.  The acronym JEATH comes from the first letter of some of the principal countries involved in this regional conflict during World War ll. Japan-England-America-Thailand-Holland.

The Japanese forced about 250,000 Asian laborers and over 100,000 POWs to build this 250 mile railway through the jungle in intense heat, starting in 1942.  This railway was to link supply lines between Burma and Thailand and Japanese positions in Asia.  The railway follows the valley of the Kwai River, crossing it, as well.  It is estimated that 100,000 laborers and 61,000 POWs lost their lives between 1942-1945 from beatings, starvation and disease.  686 American soldiers were forced to work as laborers on this project. Of these Americans, 131 died.  It is well documented that brutality was very common from the Japanese soldiers and a lot of disease was present from horrible, bug ridden food and malnutrition.

The Allied War Cemetary holds the graves or memorials of 6982 allied soldiers, which is less than half of the POWs who lost their lives building the railway.

The infamous bridge over the River Kwai, 305 meters across, is just one of the 9 miles of bridges made by these people in harsh conditions, sickness, and disease.  We walked over the Bridge over the River Kwai. The rounded sides are original. The squared off mid section was replaced twice, as it was bombed twice in the war by allied forces.

Later we took a 90 minute train ride on the death railway. It was very sad to think of the forced laborers and POWs who built this 70 years ago.

I sat on the train with Melanie Gates, who is the STEM Director in Middleboro.

The original train tracks were much narrower than today's tracks, as can be seen below.

Some of the bridges are amazing to see, and even more amazing to think of the forced laborers and POWs creating them. I was shocked at this one's rickety appearance, since our train had just gone over it when I took this picture!

We also hiked into the jungle's hilly landscape to view Hellfire Pass, the longest of several mountain cuttings hacked out by forced laborers and POWs. It is a mountainous, rocky jungle. Those poor men! Chisels, hammers, and dynamite is what they used. Many died here. The Japanese forced them to work between 18-24 hour days, as the job was taking longer than planned.

Sukhothai Historical Park

Today we began our day touring the Sukhothai Historical Park. This is a beautiful park built around temple ruins.  The temples on the property were built between 700-1200 years ago. I really loved this park. There were lovely pools of water throughout the park, green grass, beautiful trees and flowers all were intertwined throughout the ruins.

The Buddha statues throughout the park are so beautiful, especially with the backdrop of the beautiful blue sky.

It was fun to see so many people enjoying the park on such a beautiful day. The picture below is our entire group of Massachusetts educators plus one from NH and one from Canada.

The birds have found great nesting places atop the columns in the temple ruins.

A sandstone Pagoda surrounded by 24 elephants was a Monk's idea seven hundred years ago. He asked the Brother in law of the King of Sri Lanka to have this built. The teachings through generations say that if you go up to the Pagoda and rub an elephant, you may make a wish and it will come true.

I'm having a wonderful time on this adventure!!!